Summer Busy-ness

Here is what will be keeping me busy this summer:

If you can see, around the left and top edges there is some darker dirt.  That is the field.  But it is a LARGE garden.  About 1/2 of it we are sharing with the in-laws.  We planted all our corn together and will share the crop.

Here are my peas.  They are doing AWESOME (so far.)  I was able to plant more this year than usual since we have a larger garden now.

Green Bell Peppers

Red potatoes

Tomatoes

Italian Bush Beans

And, corn (what's up.)

Yes, you see weeds in some of these pictures. 

Here is my perennial vegetable/fruit garden:  (It sits next to my other garden somewhat away from the field so the herbicide doesn't kill my strawberries.)

In the raised garden (with the good dirt) are my carrots and lettuce.  It makes it so easy to pull the carrots if they are in good dirt.  (Obviously the dream would be to plant everything in good dirt - I can dream!)

We have Rhubarb, the boys' gardens (flowers and their peas and beans), and on the end are the strawberries.  I will have to make it larger this fall or next year to give the strawberries room to spread.

These are ever-bearing, so they will give crop in June and September.  We had these at our other house (actually, they will produce this year, so since we haven't sold the house, I should be able to get some from those plants also.)

And finally, here is our bird and butterfly garden that we started this past week.  The birds love the large bushes at either side, so we put the bird feeders and bath there.  Then it became hard to mow around, so we had it tilled so we could plant flowers and other plants that attract birds and butterflies.  The peonies were already here, but we put in a butterfly bush, red-hot poker plants, purple ornamental grass and daylilies, so far.  We also dug up some milkweed since monarch butterflies will only lay eggs on milkweed (since that's what the caterpillar eats.)  We are hoping they live, but we broke the roots.

This is where we have seen the birds that I have listed in a previous entry.  We can now add Eastern Bluebirds and Hummingbirds to that list.

So, now you know what I will be doing all summer besides playing referree between the boys.  And, I will enjoy it!!